Characters Welcome to Your Final Destination
by someblessedmonster
Summary: Xander gets thrown into a universe with some interesting characters: a fake psychic, a real psychic, an obsessive compulsive detective and Death. Crossover with Monk, The Dead Zone, Psych, and Final Destination
1. Characters Unwelcome

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _The Dead Zone_ and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. _Monk_ and all characters belong to Andy Breckman, Mandeville Films, Touchstone Television, NBC Universal Television and USA Network. _Psych_ and all characters belong to Steve Franks, Tagline Pictures, NBC Universal Television Studios, GEP Productions and USA Network. _The 4400_ and all characters belong to Scott Peters & René Echevarria , Renegade 83, American Zoetrope, Paramount Network Television Productions, Viacom Productions Inc. and USA Network. _Final Destination_ and all characters belong to James Wong, Jeffrey Reddick & Glen Morgan, Hard Eight Pictures, Zide-Perry Productions and New Line Cinema. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended or implied. All ownership not mentioned here is acknowledged and respected.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE** For Jan, made with Dawson's idea. I seriously thought of this while zoning-out at work.

**Characters Welcome  
To Your Final Destination**

Or

**Mr. Harris and the **

**Fake, **

**Obsessive-Compulsive, **

**Reluctant Psychic**

**Detectives Cheat Death**

**1: Characters Unwelcome**

Xander Harris opened the door of Room 218 of the Sunset Suites Inn in Los Angeles carrying a plastic bag and a wide grin on his face. Wearing a hunter green plaid shirt, wrinkled jeans, and his eye-patch, he walked into the foyer, closing the door behind him, and greeted with an excited tone. "Females!" the dark, curly-haired young man declared with a smile. "I come to you bearing awesomeness."

He strolled into the living area of the hotel suite just as Willow Rosenberg walked in from the kitchen nook with a bag of freshly-popped popcorn wearing sheep pajamas. "Heya," she greeted as she sat down in an arm chair in front of the television set. Buffy Summers was curled up in her sleepwear on the couch with her pajama'd sister Dawn next to her, the two of them sharing a blanket.

Buffy and Dawn glanced over at Xander with curious expressions. "Hey," said Buffy, "what'd you get?"

"Well," Xander began with a wide, proud smile on his face as he stood before his female friends like Superman after saving Earth from a meteor. "I know I was just going to get donuts…"

"Uh oh," Dawn whispered to her sister.

"But when I was at the store, I found _exactly_ what we need to watch tonight," Xander announced, digging into the plastic bag and retrieving a DVD-box set. He held it up in its glory: _Final Destination_s 1-3 in a special-edition trilogy case. "Behold – the Blood-Spillogy."

"You want to watch that tonight?" Dawn declared incredulously. "Tonight – our _one_ night off from Slayer-scouting?"

"No offense, Xander," Willow breathed sensitively, "but… don't you think we get enough blood-and-guts action on a nightly basis?"

"Oh, come on!" Xander pleaded. "What's not to love about these? You've got your drama, you've got your romance, you've got pretty teenagers, you've got your action, your suspense… sure, there are one or two decapitations, but other than that it's your standard Jennifer Love Hewitt flick."

"You know that's pretty much the biggest stretch you could've possibly made, right?" Buffy responded in disbelief.

"Yeah, sure," he shrugged. "But give it a shot."

"Sorry, Xander," Dawn cut in. "We've already voted on what we we're going to watch tonight."

His face fell flat with disappointment as his arms fell to his side. "Oh, no," Xander protested. "We're not watching another Nicholas Sparks adaptation… or anything that features any contribution whatsoever by the cast or crew of _Dawson's Creek_."

"Even better," said Dawn. "Tonight USA Network is showing a marathon of all their original shows. It's gonna be great!"

"What?" he stated with disgust. "How is that better than the Blood-Spillogy?"

"Are you kidding me?" Dawn excitedly declared. "Shawn Farrell from _The 4400_ is so hot! Omigod, I think if I met him I would _die_. Or no, not die, because then I wouldn't be able to see him. Let's just say there would be kidnapping involved."

Xander sighed as Buffy added, "Ooh, and let's not forget that Anthony Michael Hall has come a long way from the Brat Pack. And boy, what a good-looking journey it's been."

"Oh!" Dawn replied. "And that guy from the new show _Psych_... I'd take a side-order of _that_ any day."

Hopelessly, Xander glanced over at Willow with a desperate gaze in his eye. "Will," he pleaded, "I _know_ you're not a part of this, too."

Willow looked up at him with an apologetic expression and lightly shrugged. "The girl that plays _Monk_'s assistant is kinda cute."

He scoffed at the betrayal and threw up his hands. "Now wait a minute," he declared. "It's not a fair vote if I'm not a part of it. I want a recount."

"All right," Buffy agreed, "all those in favor of welcoming some USA characters into our room this evening, say aye."

"Aye," the three women said simultaneously, raising their hands.

"All ye opposed?"

Xander lifted his lonely hand, but it wavered in the air, and then collapsed at his side in utter defeat. His head rolled back as his shoulders slumped. "The democratic process fails again."

"Ooh, quiet, _The Dead Zone_'s starting!" Dawn interrupted with a thrilled tone. All three of the women were lost at once. Xander watched his ship sink in the distance, then sauntered over slowly to the couch and plopped down.

"Oh, hey," Willow chimed in, distracted by the television, "Xander, did you get those donuts?"

Disgusted, he tossed the bag over to Willow and she and the other two dug in while Xander closed his eye and willed himself into boredom. In the darkness he could hear Brainy Brian Johnson's haunted older voice.

_"I had the perfect life…"_

* * *

"Xander!" he could hear Buffy harshly snap.

He awakened with a start, but found himself blinded by the daylight. He was sitting alone in a red, vinyl-covered booth in the sunlight of a crowded diner, the light bouncing harshly off of the egg yoke-yellow walls. He gazed around in utter confusion, having no memory of arriving at the restaurant or even the location.

An obese older woman in her fifties wearing a pink-striped shirt approached him and stopped at his table. Without looking at him directly, she poured her pot of black coffee into a red-and-white porcelain mug sitting in front of him. He gazed down at the mug then looked back up at her, wide-eyed and baffled. She moved away without returning a single look and carried on her with her boring job.

Xander glanced over at a sign on the far wall which boasted in pink neon letters: Haynes' Country Grill.

"Dude, c'mon," he heard a young man complain across the aisle next to him. "You just touch somebody and you can see their future." Xander turned to see a light brown-haired man in his early thirties sitting on one side of a booth wearing a red-and-black striped polo shirt under a gray insulated vest. Wearing lazy stubble and a juvenile, whining expression, he scoffed, "That's not fair." Across from him was an older man in his late thirties, also blonde, wearing a black leather jacket over a lavender collared shirt.

Xander blinked in shock as he recognized both of them from Dawn's persistent rants – Anthony Michael Hall as Johnny Smith from _The Dead Zone_ and James Roday as Shawn Spencer from _Psych_. His mind went blank as he watched the interaction between the two bickering men as Johnny shrugged in reply to the question of Shawn, the fake-psychic detective.

"So? You've got a photographic memory, right?" Johnny, the real, reluctant psychic, responded.

"Yes, it's a _honed_ skill," Shawn bitterly complained, belittling Johnny's abilities. "Your 'voodoo' just fell in your lap."

"Dude," Johnny declared, taking offense and asking for reason as he pointed at him. "That came from years of being in a coma, all right?"

"Yeah, well," Shawn continued, "I had a lousy father." Both of them sneered at each other in frustration as Johnny glanced over Shawn's shoulder to the man sitting alone in the booth behind him. Xander glanced over and dropped his jaw to see Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk, the obsessive-compulsive detective of _Monk_.

Johnny nodded in Adrian's direction as Shawn turned around and glanced behind him. Wearing a light beige tweed suit with a white, collared shirt, he sat alone and stared intently at his plate of corn, meat loaf and mashed potatoes. Xander and the other two men watched as Adrian individually counted out one hundred kernels of corn in a neat little square of rows ten-by-ten.

"97… 98… 99… 100," said Adrian as he organized the last kernel with his fork. He carefully lifted the remaining three kernels up off of the plate and into a spoon beside him. After a sigh of relief and satisfaction, he gazed down at the plate with a peaceful sense of pride.

Shawn turned back around to face Johnny with a thoughtful expression. "Of course, it could be worse," he said, holding a French fry in his hand.

"Yeah, good point," Johnny nodded in cautious and thankful agreement.

"Excuse me, miss," Adrian said to the red-haired waitress, handing her his spoon of three kernels. "I won't be needing these." The hefty woman took the spoon, glancing down at the corn, and then stared at him with blank confusion.

Xander gazed at them in horror and bewilderment. "Holy TV Guide… What the hell's going on here?" he blurted in shock. Shawn, Johnny and Adrian glanced over at him in confusion. They saw the strange young guy with the eye patch pointing at them with amazement. "You… you guys… You're on TV…"

"_I'm_ not on TV," Shawn shrugged, and then optimistically changed his expression, "…_yet_."

"No, no," Xander declared, "you guys are all on those shows—"

"I think you've got us confused," Johnny responded, trying to calm Xander down.

"How did I get here?" Xander declared, jumping up out of his seat, looking around frantically. "How did _you_ get here? Where the hell _is_ here?"

"Whoa, chill out, dude," Shawn responded.

Xander began to frenetically search the crowded diner from side to side. "Where's Buffy? Willow? D-Dawn?" The other diner customers began to stop their conversations and stare at Xander suspiciously. Xander looked down to see Adrian studying him with a strange expression on his face.

"What _are_ you doing?" Xander asked. Adrian quickly looked away. "Were you staring at my eye?"

Sheepishly, Adrian replied, "No, no, it's just… just that… s-some people… Well, most people… Everybody else here… has two."

He turned away from Adrian with confusion and a desperate tone. "Can somebody tell me what's going on here?" Xander exclaimed.

"Maybe you should sit back down," Shawn suggested. "Drink some juice or something…" A metal groan sounded out which caught Adrian's attention. He watched a teenage guy stroll out of the bathroom with a dirty robe and unkempt hair, rubbing his itching nose.

"That man," Adrian interrupted, bringing their attention to the cook who meandered over behind the counter, winking at two pretty girls sitting at the bar. "He went into the restroom just thirty seconds ago…"

"So?" Xander replied, still concerned with his creepy problem.

"_So_," Adrian exclaimed with disgust, "there's no way he had time to use the restroom and wash his hands afterwards… And, look… he's touched his nose… That's… It's horri—"

Xander, Shawn and Johnny watched Adrian as he refocused his acute attention to detail on a bottle of cooking oil sitting on the grill. The cap was clearly crooked and not screwed on all the way.

The others stared into the kitchen as Shawn noted with his sharp perception the unsanitary cook wearing ear buds hidden by his hair as he stared at the lovely girls while he turned the grill up without paying attention. Shawn eyed the cabinet doors beneath the grill, one of them left open. Beneath the doors of the open cabinet, a dirty puddle of water spread out across the floor which had been stepped through for minutes.

Johnny and Xander watched the scene with a strange feeling inside of them, one that reached both Adrian and Shawn as well. The red-haired waitress which had taken Adrian's corn squeezed in between Xander and Johnny carrying a tray of food. Her elbow clipped Johnny's shoulder and activated his Dead Zone, catapulting him into a psychic vision.

_A thick white fog covered the street outside of the diner as bodies lay about covered in dust and debris._

Johnny snapped out of the vision with a jerk and stared around at the others with a horrified expression. "Something's gonna happen," Johnny panicked. Xander, Shawn and Adrian turned to him with perplexity as he jumped out of his seat and shouted, "Everybody get out now!"

They stared at him in confusion as Johnny rushed around to the front near the door. Shawn, Xander and Adrian jumped up and joined him, trying to understand the situation. The customers and staff stared at the crazed psychic as if were wearing a straight-jacket.

"This isn't a joke!" Johnny ordered. "Everybody out!" They glanced over to see the distracted, unsanitary cook step into the puddle of water and slip, falling backwards. He reached out for the counter to stop his fall and he knocked over the bottle of oil which ignited and set fire to the grill. The burning oil spilled out and fell onto the propane tanks inside the open cabinet doors beneath the grill.

"Jump!" Xander shouted, shoving Johnny, Adrian and Shawn out of the door just as they heard a jarring explosion behind them. The glass of the diner windows exploded and Xander could feel the heat on his back from the fireball. The four of them rushed onto the sidewalk just as the entire diner erupted into a fireball, the stored propane exploding inside.

Cars on the street outside suddenly came to a halt as they were rocked by the blast. Terrified pedestrians, the four diner customers included, fell to the ground in horror.

Flattened on the sidewalk, Xander looked over after hearing a low rumbling coming from inside the burning restaurant. The corner building began to tremble as it collapsed on itself, the foundation and supports catastrophically damaged by the blast. A fog of white dust poured out into the street as debris and white ash rained down upon the four men and the pedestrians.


	2. Death's Design

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _The Dead Zone_ and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. _Monk_ and all characters belong to Andy Breckman, Mandeville Films, Touchstone Television, NBC Universal Television and USA Network. _Psych_ and all characters belong to Steve Franks, Tagline Pictures, NBC Universal Television Studios, GEP Productions and USA Network. _The 4400_ and all characters belong to Scott Peters & René Echevarria , Renegade 83, American Zoetrope, Paramount Network Television Productions, Viacom Productions Inc. and USA Network. _Final Destination_ and all characters belong to James Wong, Jeffrey Reddick & Glen Morgan, Hard Eight Pictures, Zide-Perry Productions and New Line Cinema. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended or implied. All ownership not mentioned here is acknowledged and respected.

**2: Death's Design**

Flashing red and white lights illuminated the whole street in front of the remains of Haynes' Country Grill. Fire trucks and ambulances were spread across the street with police cruisers at the ends controlling the road blocks on either ends of the road, rush-hour traffic buzzing around them. Paramedics assisted the blood-and-dust-covered wounded on the sidewalks, some of them carried away in stretchers for transport to the nearest hospitals, while coroner vans were on the scene to carry the dozens of body bags being pulled out of the wreckage – not one of them containing a single complete body.

Adrian Monk held a lemon-scented, antibacterial, moist towelette in his hands as he wiped the remainder of the dust off of his face, standing across the street from the charred building with the bright sun raining down on him directly overhead. He looked up to see a young, dark skinned woman walking in front of him aimlessly, holding her left wrist protectively in her arm. He saw the bloody scratch reaching across her forearm. Adrian dug into his pocket and retrieved another moist towelette package, handing it to her quickly.

"Here," he offered with concern. "Don't… let that get infected." She took the package from him and nodded gratefully, walking away towards the nearest ambulance.

Adrian stepped back down the street, paying close attention to the lines in the pavement as he moved away from the devastation and crowds. A middle-aged man wearing an apron with the embellished logo of the competing diner at the end of the street rushed up to Adrian carrying a cardboard box. Mr. Monk stepped back nervously as the man offered the box full of bottles of Aquafina.

Adrian looked down at the box, then back up at the helpful man. "Th-thank you…" he said, picking out three and taking them with him. He continued down the sidewalk until he reached Johnny, Shawn and Xander as they sat on the curb with bewildered expressions. Adrian wiped off each bottle carefully, then handed them down to the three men.

"Thanks, man," said Johnny as he took the bottle, opened it and took a long drink. He wore a bandage around his right wrist and tiny scratches on his forehead from meeting the pavement. Shawn took his bottle and leaned his face against it tiredly with an ice pack covering the bruise on his other cheekbone. The palms of his hands were grated and bleeding from his cement slide. The last bottle went to Xander, whose green plaid over-shirt was charred by the heat of the flames as blood leaked from his busted lower lip.

Adrian leaned over and examined the singed fabric on Xander's back. "Is that… _okay_?" he asked.

Xander opened up his bottle and took a sip, his lip stinging. "We'll just call it one hell of a sunburn."

Silence fell over them as Adrian stood next to the three sitting men. They looked around at the chaos in front of them. A hydrant across the street from a small parking lot supplied water to the fire hose which the firefighters used to put out the flames reaching to the surrounding buildings.

Shawn ignored his pounding skull momentarily as he noted the amount of water leaking from the hydrant and running across the street to the parking area. There were far too many things to observe in the muddled scene around them. He was currently trying to rid his photographic memory of the faces of the people sitting around him and every nametag in the diner – three hats total.

"Why didn't I see it coming before?" Johnny whispered aloud. He gazed at the broken restaurant, thinking of all the people inside. Shawn and Adrian looked over at him remorsefully. "When I came in, when I sat down… I touched just about everything in there."

"You can't… blame yourself for this," Adrian declared. "It was an accident."

"I was in there for thirty minutes," Johnny replied in disbelief.

"Twenty-six," Shawn corrected, trying to help.

"Doesn't matter," Johnny declared coldly as he gazed at the monstrosity of the damage. "I could have… I _should_ have stopped this." In the five years he had been a psychic, he had received thousands of psychic 'visions' revealing a ton of information he would've been happier to never know about. In a way, he'd convinced himself that he could see anything coming – a surprise party or the future nuclear holocaust. But not today. Not this.

"Why didn't I see it coming?" he repeated at a loss.

"Maybe you weren't supposed to," Xander declared, staring across the street. They looked over at him with puzzled expressions. He turned to them with worry. "Don't you see what's happening here?" he asked. "This is just like that movie _Final Destination_."

The three detectives glanced back and forth at each other. "Never heard of it," Shawn replied.

"The movies are about these people who get visions of horrible accidents before they happen and then do something to stop them, or at least save themselves and whoever they can," Xander explained. He began to speak aloud as he mulled over the facts in his head, raising his fingers to his temples as he tried to contemplate the situation. "Now back in the hotel room, I wanted to watch _Final Destination_ while everyone else wanted to watch USA. I sat on the couch and… fell asleep! That's it! I'm dreaming – this is some sort of wacky nightmare dream which puts the two together."

"Before you were weird," Shawn said as he, Adrian and Johnny stared at him incredulously, "but now it's just disturbing."

"What _are_ you talking about?" Adrian exclaimed, shaking his head with mystification.

"We're _in_ the movie!" Xander shouted. "Or… maybe a crappy sequel. But this is _it_." They stared at him in worried silence as they questioned the very fabric of his mental stability. With a frustrated sigh, Xander turned away, realizing that they were a million miles away from believing him. Instantly, his expression changed to horror.

"Wait," Xander breathed with a face of dread. "I think I've just thought of something." Several moments of silence passed before he added, "Damn it, I _did_ think of something." He looked up at the others with a fearful expression. "We cheated death! We saw its design! It's gonna come back for us!"

"What's your malfunction, dude?" Shawn blurted in sheer bewilderment.

Xander began to look around the street and jumped up off of the curb. In the gust of wind, a few newspaper sections had been rolling across the street. He grabbed the nearest section and came back to the curb. "Does anybody have a pen?" he asked dramatically.

"Uh…" Johnny replied, glancing down into the inside pocket of his jacket. He reached inside and removed the pen when Xander snatched it from him quickly. Johnny glanced down at Xander as he got on his hands and knees with the newspaper and began to draw a picture. He turned to Shawn and Adrian who were also unsure of how much to indulge the psychopath.

"That could've come out of garbage," Adrian exclaimed, staring down at Xander's frantic writing. "You don't know where that's been…"

"Okay," Xander began, still drawing, "in all of the movies, after the characters have cheated death, Death comes back for them."

Johnny shook his head in confusion. "What?"

"Just hear me out," Xander pleaded. "They messed up the fabric of the universe or some crazy crap so the only way Death can set it right is if it kills the people that should've died in horribly gruesome ways. Gore and box office dollars ensue."

"Tell me," Shawn responded, "do you work the morbidness on holidays, too?"

"My point is that sooner or... sooner than that, Death is going to try and set things 'right,'" Xander answered, coming to a stand. "It's going to try to kill us because we were _meant_ to die in that diner."

Johnny stared at him blankly. "And in no way does this appear to you as simply a freak accident?"

"There _are_ no accidents!" Xander shouted at the top of his lungs. "No coincidences! No escapes!"

"Are the people you're usually… with… this melodramatic, too?" asked Adrian.

"Look at the design!" Xander said, holding up the newspaper.

The three detectives were silent as they stared at the page. "That's the National News section," Johnny told him.

Xander sighed in frustration as he pointed to the squiggly-lined picture he drew in the center of one of the articles. It was a collection of uneven rectangles and stick figures with the labels 'stove,' 'Johnny,' 'Shawn,' 'Monk,' and 'me' written across the picture.

Xander pointed to the 'stove' rhombus. "This is the point of origin for the explosion which traveled across the diner and _would've_ killed us here if we had stayed in our seats."

"Wait, that _can't_ be me." Shawn shook his head, pointing at his stick figure. He nodded over towards Johnny and explained, "I'm clearly taller than he is, so my stick figure has to be taller than his—"

"It's just a representation!" Xander exclaimed. "A representation of Death's design!"

"With stick figures," Johnny nodded with an incredulous expression. They turned to him and could see the obvious disbelief planted firmly on his face.

"The point is, that I would've died last," Xander sighed. "But since you all were sitting in a row, I'm not sure the order in which you would've died."

"Why would you need to know that?" Adrian asked.

"Because Death is going to kill us in the order that we would've died in!"

Shawn stared at Xander with a serious gaze of resolve. "Dude, don't worry." He grabbed Xander by the shoulders. "I won't let it get us both." Xander yanked himself away from Shawn with an annoyed glare.

Adrian glanced over at Shawn and Johnny, then back to Xander, trying to wrap his mind around the puzzle. "So… what you're saying is… Death is a killer?"

"No, more… more like a force," he answered.

"Like _Star Wars_?" Shawn asked.

"No," he quickly replied, then reconsidered his response. "Well, not quite… but you're thinking right."

"No, he's not," Johnny stated in firm disbelief as he came to a stand. "This is ridiculous. You're having delusions about a movie that doesn't exist!"

"Hey!" Xander snapped, offended. "Don't you talk about _Final Destination_ like that! You… don't exist!" Johnny's expression fell flat as he stared at him blankly, amazed by the strange man's amazing stupidity. Xander realized the silliness of what he had said and tried to clarify, "You just… don't know it yet." Shawn and Adrian were stunned into silence as they glanced at each other, and then stared back at Xander with suspicion and growing fear.

"Well," said Johnny sarcastically. "Thank you for _that_ twist, M. Night. I'm going home." Johnny Smith turned away from the group and began to march off towards the parking lot where his SUV was parked.

"Wait!" Xander called after him. "We've got to stick together if we're going to look for the signs!"

"Signs?" Shawn exclaimed, Xander's story getting wilder by the minute. "What signs?"

"They're clues about how we're going to die," Xander said with a sigh as he turned back to face Adrian and Shawn. "Damn it – how am I ever gonna do this? I wouldn't recognize a sign if it hit me in the head."

A gust of wind slapped Xander in the face with the newspaper page which he had drawn his design on. He flailed his arms trying to pull the paper out of his mouth. Shawn gazed at the lettering across Xander's face as his eyes widened. "Get off!" Xander hissed as he grabbed the newspaper and tossed it aside angrily.

"Wait," Shawn exclaimed as he reached over and grabbed the paper before it blew away. He turned to the page with the design drawing on it.

"Who cares if your stick figure doesn't accurately represent you?" Adrian declared.

Xander nodded and observed, "And _that's_ coming from a guy who's obsessed with detail."

"No, did you see that photo on this page?" Shawn declared, opening the section up to the third page of the National News section. He, Adrian and Xander gazed down to see a photo of Johnny Smith taken at a Maine power plant. Shawn read the lead of the corresponding article aloud, "'The Penobscot County Power Facility was shut down promptly and averted disaster yesterday after officials received a warning from psychic Johnny Smith about an accident involving faulty wiring which proved to be factual after a police-ordered inspection.'"

Xander grabbed the paper and viewed the photograph of Johnny Smith carefully. He stood in front of a gray wall with Sheriff Walt Bannerman and the head engineer of the plant. In yellow stenciled paint, the words 'WARNING: HIGH VOLTAGE' were printed next to the psychic's head.

Their thoughts were immediately interrupted by the squealing of tires in the distance. Xander, Adrian and Shawn looked up to see a Chevrolet Cobalt swerve at a high-speed to avoid the police cruiser which had been blocking the entrance to the street. The driver losing control of the vehicle, the car ramped off of the incline in the road. The high speed and strange angle of the ascent caused the Cobalt to rocket twenty-five yards through the air before colliding with the mid-section of a nearby telephone pole which stood above the occupied fire hydrant.

The jolt of the crash caused the pole to break lose, the wires snapping at the top and sparks raining from the transformer. The bystanders on the street, including the diner survivors, stared up at the exploding transformer in awe. Shawn's eyes fell back down to the street, remembering the water covering the ground below which rolled into the parking lot. He gazed over to see Johnny only feet away from his SUV, walking through the downhill river of water.

Shawn and Xander broke into a mad dash down the street towards Johnny as Adrian gazed up at the trembling telephone pole, the weathered wood midsection creaking and cracking with tremendous strain. The muscles of the pole finally tore lose, the giant snapping at the point of impact, bringing the spaghetti bowl of live electrical wires down to the water-covered street.

Johnny turned around to see the electrical pole falling through the air with wide eyes. He felt two pairs of hands grab him as he was lifted off the ground. Johnny, Shawn and Xander leapt onto the SUV just as the wires collided with the wet pavement and sent a net of electricity across the ground and under Johnny's car.

"We're grounded by the tires," Xander breathed as the three of them struggled to catch their breaths. Johnny turned to Xander with horrified eyes as the young man asked with exhaustion, "_Now_ do you believe me?"


	3. It's All Around You

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _The Dead Zone_ and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. _Monk_ and all characters belong to Andy Breckman, Mandeville Films, Touchstone Television, NBC Universal Television and USA Network. _Psych_ and all characters belong to Steve Franks, Tagline Pictures, NBC Universal Television Studios, GEP Productions and USA Network. _The 4400_ and all characters belong to Scott Peters & René Echevarria , Renegade 83, American Zoetrope, Paramount Network Television Productions, Viacom Productions Inc. and USA Network. _Final Destination_ and all characters belong to James Wong, Jeffrey Reddick & Glen Morgan, Hard Eight Pictures, Zide-Perry Productions and New Line Cinema. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended or implied. All ownership not mentioned here is acknowledged and respected.

**3: It's All Around You**

Silence fell across the Los Angeles City Morgue until a door of the entrance creaked and cracked open, spilling bright sunlight into the dark lobby. Xander, Johnny, Shawn and Adrian stepped into the building and gazed around quietly, an ominous feeling lingering over them. The icy cold air clawed at their skin as each of them gazed around at every object with a new kind of fear. Xander gazed down the main corridor and began a steadfast journey which the others followed.

"Xander," Johnny warily asked as he gazed around and the darkened lobby, "_why_ are we here?" The psychic glanced behind him as he and the others had several times since they had left the diner remains. A presence was stalking them closely, pursuing their every step, and breathing hot fury down their necks.

"If you want to know about Death," Xander explained as he led the group quickly down the hallway, "you've got to talk to someone who practically _lives_ Death."

"Translate that in lame terms?" Shawn requested.

The four of them reached the end of the hallway and Xander pushed opened two double doors revealing an examination room. A bright overhead light in the center washed down on a lifeless, pale body lying on an operating table with nothing but a cloth covering his lower section.

The four men gazed at the body in silence, the words being ripped from their mouths. The overweight man in his late forties lay as a foreign shell, albeit peaceful. They studied the body, staring at the face. Whoever this man was before dying was gone and there was nothing but a crumpled, vacant paper bag left behind, the items which once made it full vanished.

"Are you waiting for something?" a deep, dark voice called from beside them. Their hearts skipping a beat, they turned quickly to see a large, middle-aged, muscular, dark-skinned man enter the room with a knowing expression and a twisted smile. Wearing a bright blue collared shirt with black suspenders and tie, he stepped through the room towards the body with fire burning in his dark eyes.

Xander stared at him and recognized him instantly. "You're the Mortician," he declared.

The Mortician smiled with a devilish grin. "And you're the one who sees everything. The one who found himself tumbling down the rabbit hole and right into Death's grip." He glanced back down at the body laid out across the table. "Admiring my new arrival?"

"This man was sick before he died," Adrian observed, gazing down with close examination.

"How do you know?" Johnny asked.

"His face… there's a film covering it," Adrian explained idly, exploring the evidence. "Salt residue from sweat, but it was unlikely that he was doing any exercising." He stared intently. "Slight foaming of the mouth…" He pulled his head away, removing a handkerchief from his pocket and holding it to his mouth. "That smell," he declared through the thickness of the cloth. "Bile…"

"How interesting," Shawn nodded his head. "_And_ thoroughly disgusting."

"We shouldn't be here," Adrian nervously declared, stepping away from the body. "These conditions, they're… unsanitary. There's disease in here that… We just have no idea."

"You've nothing to fear, Mr. Monk," the Mortician declared as he lifted the sheet over the face of the body, covering it. "When Death truly wants you… no antibiotic in the world could save you."

"You're not good at the pep talking, are you?" Shawn observed with a nervous tone. "Well let's talk about the facts." He glanced back at the body, and then he suspiciously stared at the Mortician. "Death is… coming to get us?"

"Life has a plan for us all," the Mortician explained in calm, round tones. "Each of us has a destiny and the need to fulfill that destiny. Different, all, yet no matter how diverse, we each share a common fate."

Johnny peered at him beneath a furrowed brow. "Death?"

"The great equalizer," he answered with a nod.

"Unless you cheat death," Xander shrugged.

The Mortician couldn't help but crack a smile at the boy's arrogance. He shook his head slightly as he gazed down at the body on the table. "Those who cheat death only win back their lives for a short period of time. A few years, a few weeks..." His dark eyes met with Xander's. "A few minutes."

"But…we _can_ cheat death?" Johnny asked.

"What you must realize, Mr. Smith," he replied, "is that though Death can be sidetracked, there is no escape."

"But we can cause heavy delays," Xander announced. He glanced around at them with optimism. "By doing what we did today for John, we cheated it again. We intervened and it skipped him."

"Skipped him?" Shawn repeated in confusion.

"It'll go to the next person in line," Xander replied. Shawn and Adrian nervously glanced at each other, as Xander tried to explain, "So we have to keep our eyes open for the signs that Death lets slip. If we can pick up on the signs and figure out Death's next move, we can intervene again and again until we defeat it."

"Defeat it?" the Mortician repeated with a humored tone. "Defeat Death?" A cold smile formed on his face as he replied, "It's all around you."

"But we can't just give into this," Shawn stated with an overwhelmed tone. "Death's everywhere, fine. But we've got to believe we can beat it." Xander turned to him with a flummoxed expression. "Like I have this cousin who lived next to this guy that froze himself to death when he got locked in a meat cellar. He was in there for hours shouting himself hoarse and beating on the doors, but no one was around to hear him. They found him a day later and he had all the signs of being frozen to death."

"That's not strange," Johnny shrugged in confusion.

"But you see, they found out that the temperature never dropped below fifty," Shawn replied. "He scared himself to death. He believed that it would happen and it actually did."

"You're saying that… you can overcome Death?" Adrian concluded. "In your mind?"

Shawn nodded with a shrug. "If our actions decide when we die, then... shouldn't they be able to save us, too?"

"Death _always_ wins," said the Mortician with a resolved conclusiveness. "It's a fact known since the beginning of time. And if you disrespect that bit of common knowledge… you'll find yourself pitted against vehemence unlike any other." He turned to Xander in disproval of his constant, defiant expression. "Death isn't some game, boy."

"We can play it," Xander reinforced. "We can cheat it."

The Mortician turned away from the haughty young man. "And what happens when Death starts playing you?"

He stared at him in silence. "What do you mean by that?"

"Wait a second," Johnny remembered, turning towards Xander, "you said that you thought this was a dream. Why would you think that?"

"Yeah," Shawn agreed as he stared at Xander with curiosity. At this point, anything was possible. "What's up with that?"

Xander looked over at them, uncertain of how to explain. "I still think it's a dream," he admitted. "But weird stuff happens – _I_ know. Just look at what's happening now." He gazed around at the detectives and hesitantly continued, "I have these friends – this girl who's… kinda special. We've seen some pretty weird stuff in our time where we used to live. Like back in high school, this little kid who was in a coma had some sort of effect on the rest of the town and their nightmares kinda… became real." They stared at him peculiarly. "Look, it's really a long story. But I think this may be similar. It's all a bad dream."

"_Your_ dream?" Adrian asked. "Well, haven't you… tried to pinch yourself, or something?"

"For the past two hours," he shrugged. "My arms are sore."

Johnny stared at him suspiciously. "So… if you think this is all a dream, why are you so worried?"

"Good question," Xander declared with a light tone, which fell flat as he shook his head with quiet frustration. "I don't know."

"Maybe you're not really dreaming," the Mortician suggested, enjoying the sudden insecurity within Xander.

His eyes widened a bit as he glanced over at the other three men who stared at them, unsure themselves of what was real and what wasn't. He turned back to the Mortician, mustering his confidence again and declared with as strong a voice he could gather, "This has to be a dream. It's too crazy to be real."

"Have you ever had a dream that felt so real that your heart couldn't save itself from the fear?" the Mortician curiously asked. Xander's gaze fell down to the ground. "It couldn't distinguish the line between hallucination and reality?" The young man swallowed hard as he glanced back up at the Mortician with a shaky heart he was trying to conceal.

"Yeah," he shrugged casually, "but those dreams usually involve prehistoric warrior women and a weird guy with an attraction to cheese."

"If you're right, Xander," said the Mortician, "if you can cheat death… maybe even defeat it by the power of your mind… then it doesn't matter if it's real to anyone else. All that matters is if it's real to you." His moment of optimism was overshadowed again by a dark warning. "But the moment that you believe it's anything more than a dream – then it's as real as you've made it." His eyes narrowed as he added, "_If_ you're right." Xander swallowed again as he faced the Mortician with all the courage in his heart. "If you _are_, then when you die… you'll die by your own doing. If you're _wrong_... nothing can save you."

Xander stared at him defiantly. "This is a dream," he concluded with resolve. "I'm not gonna die here. I can control it. I can defeat it… because I'm not afraid."

The Mortician peered at him in silence as Shawn, Johnny and Adrian glanced back and forth between the two theorists. Another amused smirk formed on his face as he answered, "Only for now." He casually turned around and began to walk back towards the office door from which he had entered, passing the new body without another thought. "You can have some time alone with the deceased," he idly offered as he entered his office. "It may provide some… closure."

Pulling the door closed behind him, he left the four marked men alone to their thoughts.

* * *

Xander pushed open the doors and exited the morgue, stepping out into the bright light of the sun on the sloped street outside. "Xander, wait," Shawn called from behind as he rushed out second with Johnny and Adrian stepping out at a slower, more calm pace. "Xander," Shawn said again as he began to walk side-by-side with him as they walked down the staircase leading to the sidewalk, "you believe him, don't you?"

"_Him_?" Xander scoffed. "The guy who just spent all his time telling me how we couldn't defeat Death?"

"Isn't that how you saw it after the explosion?" Johnny asked in confusion.

"That's before I realized we really could intervene," Xander answered as he stopped in his tracks and turned back to the others. "Just like in the movies." Shawn leaned against the trunk of a nearby maple tree, Johnny placed his hand on the railing of the steps and Adrian stayed on the stairs to make himself eye-level with the other men because of the street's incline. "I know we can win this, I just… know it." He looked around the circle for some support, but found nothing but unoptimistic looks.

"But what if… we don't?" Adrian replied hesitantly.

"We can't afford to think like that," Xander shook his head firmly.

Johnny sighed, "But we have to deal with this realistically." Xander glanced over at him with an irritated look and John stopped him before he could reply. "Just hear me out," Johnny pleaded. "I made the mistake once of not doing everything I wanted to do before it was too late. Whether we're on Death's list or not, we all should treat this – treat everyday – as if it's the end."

A calm quiet fell over them as Adrian nodded in concurrence. "He's right," he softly agreed.

Johnny took a deep breath as he crossed his arms and gazed down at the ground. "It doesn't mean I'm giving up," he began, "but I've got a son that I love… and I've got friends that I care a great deal about. I have to talk to them."

Shawn stared down at the ground with a heavy heart and sad eyes. Adrian looked over at Xander and Johnny, still nervous although he was trying to keep himself calm. "I really should talk to Natalie," he said. "She's… she's my assistant. She's so…" The words fell away. "She's been so good to me and…" He gazed down at the ground with a hint of shame. "I know it's not always easy… to cope… with me. I… I-I need to thank her."

Shawn's head rose as he looked over at Xander with apologetic eyes. "I'm… Look, I'm sorry guys. I've gotta go." He turned around and began to walk down the incline in the sidewalk towards the parking lot where his best friend Gus' car – the one Shawn had taken without asking that morning because he was short on gas – was parked.

"Shawn, where are you going?" Xander asked with confusion.

He turned around with deep conflict in his green eyes. "I know this is a dream to you," Shawn tried to kindly explain, "but it's not to me. There's somebody I have to talk to."

"Wait," Xander called. "We have to stick together. It's not safe to go off—"

"It's my dad, all right?" Shawn said with deep distress in his heart. "I just… I _have_ to talk to him _now_, okay? It's important."

"We don't know who's next!" Johnny called out.

"I know!" he answered with resolve. "So I _have_ to do this." He turned and bounded off to the parking lot without any hesitance. Xander sighed and turned his attention back to the two other men. Adrian stared up nervously at the sky as Gus' blue Toyota Yaris drove by, driving up the incline and stopping in the turn lane at the top of the hill, waiting anxiously for the green arrow signal.

"We need to get inside," Adrian said. "We shouldn't be outside in the sun without protection. Skin cancer is… very serious." He looked at the other two with a sudden worry of realization. "In fact, we should get screened right away. Who knows, we might already be carrying something that Death will utilize later."

Johnny nodded in agreement, then stated, "What we should do first is get in a safe place where we can be protected from the outside world. Some sort of…"

"Controlled environment," Adrian finished. His attention was clearly drawn away from the conversation as he noticed something out of place on the street.

"Exactly," Johnny declared. "Let's make some calls."

"I'm gonna call Buffy," Xander concluded. "If she's not watching us on television in a separate universe or something, I know she'll be able to…" Xander's words faded off as he looked over at Adrian's eyes, studying hard on an inconsistency in detail. "What is it?" Xander asked as he and Johnny turned to face his point of view.

"Shawn's car," Adrian declared as he gazed hard at the line of cars on the three-lane street. The Yaris was waiting in the center lane to turn left as the traffic from the five-lane street in front of it moved by swiftly. "It's lined up with the car in the other lane."

"What do you mean?" Johnny asked. "What's the matter?"

"He's supposed to stop behind the line," Xander explained. "The two lanes are supposed to be unaligned, but they're not." The traffic from the center lane in the street in front of Shawn began to make their turns left as car by car had to pay extra attention to avoid the Yaris.

Johnny pulled his eyes off of the car and placed them on the small maple tree Shawn was leaning against. Holding his fingers outstretched, he placed his palm on the trunk of the tree. He was thrown into a vision as he jerked his head downwards.

_Johnny could see Shawn surrounded by shadows as small beams of light shot down around him. A moment later, he realized that Shawn was submerged in water and struggling to escape but could not seem to move._

The psychic was ripped back to the present as he turned to Adrian and Xander, who were waiting with anxious expressions. "He's going to drown," Johnny nervously declared. The three of them rushed up the hill on the sidewalk to Shawn's car. They watched as a mega-sized pick-up truck sped around the sharp, left turn just before the light was about to turn red, but turned too sharply. The pick-up collided into the front of the blue Toyota, deploying the airbags inside.

Shawn was confused and disoriented as the airbags punched him in the face. Xander, Johnny and Adrian watched as the small car was knocked backwards and began an uncontrolled roll back down the hill.

"Shawn!" they shouted in fear as they rushed into the street, dodging the traffic cautiously. His head throbbing and his face burning, Shawn tried to push the airbags away from his face and realized he was rolling backwards at a high speed blindly. He tried to step on the brake, but he heard what sounded like a wire-short as the brakes failed. Johnny, Adrian and Xander stopped in the center lane as the Yaris careened backwards at a high rate of speed right towards them.

Recognizing that there was no control of the vehicle, they quickly bolted across the street, diving out of the way just in time. Once they reached the safety of the sidewalk, they turned around and saw the blue car rushing backwards as one of the tires exploded suddenly. The Yaris suddenly made a sharp turn left and backed through a chain-link fence that held the sign: "NO LIFEGUARD ON DUTY – SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK."

Their eyes going wide, Johnny, Xander and Adrian ran frantically towards the public pool and watched helplessly as the Yaris rolled backwards into the vacated pool area and into the water, dragging patio tables and chairs with it.

Finally pushing the airbags away, Shawn panicked with terror as he heard the crash and saw the dark shadowy wave of water wash over his windshield. Within seconds, gallons of chlorine water were rushing into the confines of the small car.

He grabbed the handle of the door instinctively and tried to free himself, but to no avail, the pressure on the outside being too intense. He slammed his hand on the button of the power windows, but they failed him as well. The water was rushing up passed his stomach as he glanced down at the cold liquid in horror.

Johnny, Adrian and Xander rushed into the pool area, stepping over the chain-link fence. Xander was about to dive into the pool before Adrian shouted out and stopped him. "No, wait, the patio furniture is in the water!" he called out, pointing towards the sharp, protruding objects protectively surrounding the blue car. "You'll impale yourself!" Adrian warned. Johnny grabbed Xander by the arm as the two of them rushed into the shallow end using the stairs and swam across the lap-pool to the sinking car in the deep end.

The water at his throat, Shawn nervously clawed at his seatbelt buckle, trying to get it undone. Time running out, he took a final gasp of air before the water washed over him. Shawn calmed himself quickly for a slight moment and he suddenly thought to reach down for the seat-adjusting handle. He rolled his seat all the way back and pushed it as flat as he could, leaving an opening in the arms of the seatbelt big enough for him to pull himself out of. Now free inside the car, he tried the door again, his racing heart shrinking his oxygen supply dramatically.

Xander and Johnny swam towards the car and reached it to see Shawn beating on the windows. Shawn glanced up and saw the two men with a slight sense of hope, but was gripped with terror as another ominous shadow passed over the drivers-side window. Death was not going to let him go easily. Xander and Johnny tried to pull on both doors on both sides and tried to break the glass with their fists, furiously punching the relentless walls.

Still at the water's edge, Adrian stood next to the pool with fear. He stared down at the water and wished with all of his heart that he could stand to leap in. He was afraid of the dirty water – and terrified of swimming in general – and found himself shrinking away. The familiar self-loathing appeared again, rearing its ugly head as Adrian swallowed hard with disgust of his mouse-like behavior. He knew they should have surfaced by now.

An idea suddenly smacked him, interrupting his moment of self-doubt. Adrian glanced around the destroyed pool area, knowing that they wouldn't be able to get the doors open or break the windows. His eyes moving from side to side, they spotted a large stone sticking out of the dirt and mulch of the landscaping at the edge of the cemented area. Ignoring his fears, he grabbed the large, dirt-covered rock and dropped it into the deep end of the water near Johnny, taking care not to hit him.

Johnny punched again at the glass of the windows, a halo of blood surrounding his fist that floated gently through the dark water. He could see Shawn inside, his moves getting slower as the air in his lungs burned out like a matchstick. Xander was on the other side of the car, now kicking and punching at the glass, but was stronger than a brick wall, mockingly laughing in their faces as their friend was dying inside of its impenetrable boundaries.

The noise of the surface being broken pulled Johnny's attention away from the glass momentarily as he saw a large rock the size of a regular brick sank in front of him. He reached out and grabbed it instantly, pulling it back and breaking the glass of the drivers-side window. Johnny kicked the rest of the glass out of the way as he reached in and grabbed Shawn's severely weakened body.

When Johnny wrapped his arm around Shawn's chest and began to pull him from the cab of the car, Shawn's mouth opened as he gasped desperately for air, water instead filling it and forcing its way down his throat. Xander and Johnny both fought for the surface, pulling Shawn up with them.

As they looked up, the metal leg of a patio chair stuck gently into the water from above, barely cracking the surface as it slid down deeper towards them. Johnny fought the water and grabbed the leg of the chair, Adrian on the other end pulling forcefully, as he pulled Johnny and Shawn up to the surface, Xander surfacing after them. Both Xander and Johnny took a deep breath as Johnny gripped Shawn's stomach and chest, kicking the water out of his throat and lungs.

Shawn coughed and gagged as air rushed back into his lungs and he tried to rid the water from his system. A feeling of calm rushed over them once more as Xander and Johnny swam to the side, Shawn in between both of them. Tossing the patio chair aside, Adrian reached down into the pool and grabbed Shawn while Xander and Johnny pulled themselves out of the water. The three men together pulled Shawn from the pool next and sat him away from the edge, his energy exhausted as his heart slowly came back down to a normal pace as his lungs quivered from the rush of new air.

"You all right, man?" Xander asked as Shawn shook his head, still coughing.

"No…" he replied in between coughs. Johnny, Xander and Adrian glanced at each other as they looked back at the Yaris sitting at the bottom of the pool. Shawn raised his head and gazed at the pool and took deep, slow breaths for several moments of silence.

"Hey!" a voice called from beside them. They turned to see an old man standing on the sidewalk with an orange tabby cat at the end of a leash and a dumbfounded, angry look planted firmly on his face. "What the hell's the matter with you!" he shouted at them. "You kids drive like maniacs!"


	4. No Escapes

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _The Dead Zone_ and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. _Monk_ and all characters belong to Andy Breckman, Mandeville Films, Touchstone Television, NBC Universal Television and USA Network. _Psych_ and all characters belong to Steve Franks, Tagline Pictures, NBC Universal Television Studios, GEP Productions and USA Network. _The 4400_ and all characters belong to Scott Peters & René Echevarria , Renegade 83, American Zoetrope, Paramount Network Television Productions, Viacom Productions Inc. and USA Network. _Final Destination_ and all characters belong to James Wong, Jeffrey Reddick & Glen Morgan, Hard Eight Pictures, Zide-Perry Productions and New Line Cinema. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended or implied. All ownership not mentioned here is acknowledged and respected.

**4: No Escapes**

"Pl-please," Adrian asked with a nervous, tight throat. He stood in the middle of a doctor's office on the twenty-ninth floor of the American One office building in downtown Los Angeles. Johnny, Xander and Shawn joined him, still moist from their impromptu swim, and stood anxiously behind him. Adrian stood in front of a desk where a glasses-wearing secretary with her blonde hair pulled back in a bun stared up at him in confusion. "I-I _need_ to talk to Dr. Cogdel, it's an emergency."

The secretary shook her head apologetically. "I'm sorry, but you don't have an appointment and you'll have to wait—"

"We don't have enough _time_!" Adrian exclaimed, slowly slipping into panic.

"I don't know if we should be here, Adrian," Xander leaned in and whispered.

"Would you let _me_ handle this?" Adrian declared, glancing back at him in tense agitation. "I'm next, so I feel I should be handling this."

Shawn nervously gazed around the room, taking in every aspect – but never did he do it with such fear in his heart. The name of the secretary was Jessica, the potted plant in the corner was a fake hibiscus, there was a fifty-gallon aquarium in the corner with thirteen fish inside, and there was a yellow-haired, four-year-old girl wearing a light blue dress standing next to the window which overlooked the L.A. skyline with a Sharpie marker in her hand. Unattended, she drew aimlessly on the window with the permanent marker, but no one was around to pay attention to her wrongdoing. 

Adrian turned back to the secretary with wide, apprehensive eyes of urgency. "You must get Dr. Cogdel now," he stressed. Jessica gazed down at his hands with a peculiar expression.

"Sir," she began with a distressed look, "you're shaking—"

"We-we need to be screened," Adrian stuttered, his heart racing. He pulled his eyes away from her face and gazed at the room around her. "All…all of us need screening for diseases, cancer, poisoning, bacteria…"

"Bacteria?" Johnny repeated. "Adrian, there's no way to rid ourse—"

"The doctor!" Adrian shouted, his voice breaking under the tremendous stress. "We need to be sure…"

"Well, now that you mention it," Shawn shrugged, "I _do_ feel kinda woozy."

"Maybe that's just the impending doom," Xander answered grimly as he gazed with blank eyes, deep in thought.

"Do not fall into this," Johnny ordered them sternly. "We have to stay calm; it's the only way we'll make it through this." He turned to Adrian with the expression of resolve. "You have to understand that we can't stay here and be screened for everything. It's imposs—"

"No, it's not," Adrian said with a breathless voice. "I-I-I have a-a doctor in every major city in… in California just for this purpose…"

Johnny stared at Adrian worriedly as he watched him come apart at the seams before him. His hands shaking, he was beginning to break out into a nervous sweat, which terrified him even more. Anxiously trying to blot his face with his white linen handkerchief, he continued to gaze around the room and began to mumble his fears incoherently.

The door from the hallway opened up as a tall, thin, tired-looking woman wearing a skirt suit entered and rested her eyes on the four-year-old. Shawn glanced over to see the mother's eyes go wide. "Janet Lynn!" the mother snapped. The small child jumped in mid-stick figure as she stared up at her angry mother with the marker in her hand. Jaw agape, she watched as her mother rushed over and snatched the small child's hand and pulled her out of the room. "I told you not to do that!" the stressed-out mom sighed as they disappeared.

Shawn glanced over at the window to see the sunlight shining through a male stick figure and a female stick figure with a giant heart in between them. The roofs of the surrounding skyscrapers could be seen in the distance as the sun hung low above them.

"Is… Is the room getting sm-smaller?" Adrian stuttered.

"Sir," Jessica shook her head, now almost more scared than Adrian was, "I _really_ have to ask you to—"

"Just get the doctor!" Adrian snapped with a voice full of rage and terror. The startled secretary nearly fell out of her seat as she leapt up and rushed out of the room through a door to the back office.

"Maybe it's the heat," Xander sighed, "but I think we're starting to crack under the pressure."

"Heat?" Adrian exclaimed with a new terror entering his mind. "Oh, god – what if it's heat exhaustion? We shouldn't have been outside so long…"

"Adrian, you need to stay calm," Johnny said slowly.

"_Calm_?" he repeated with a strained voice. "How can I stay calm! It's after me now! I'm next! Death could be coming from anywhere!" He gazed around the room and began a delusional list with barely any breath left to finish it, "Sn-snakes, lawn mowers, germs, orange juice, nuclear bombs!"

"Nuclear bombs," Xander repeated as he considered it to be reality. "I didn't even think of that!" He turned to the others hopefully. "You guys have police ties? You're able to deal with that, right?"

"Dude," Shawn shook his head, staring at him strangely. "We're police informants. Not Jack Bauer."

"We-we have to make sure," Adrian stuttered fearfully. "We ha-have to p-protect ourselves…"

"Just breathe," Johnny pleaded, placing a hand on his shoulder. He turned to Xander with worry. "He's about to lose it, man."

"Guys!" Shawn called, getting their attention. They looked over to Shawn's point of view – back to the four-year-old's drawing. "Look at the heart," he explained. Their eyes narrowed as they noticed a tiny crack in the window cutting across the heart drawing.

"We-we don't have time!" Adrian shouted, his pitch raising and his breaths becoming short. He backed away from the desk as Johnny refocused his attention on the panicking man. "It's… it's happening right now! It's all around… around u-us!"

Shawn and Xander glanced at Adrian with worry, then turned back to the window. "It means something – it's a clue," Shawn declared.

"I know," Xander nodded. "But what?" They studied the picture as Adrian continued to back away from all of them, rambling off broken words that made no sense anymore.

"Something's happening to him," Johnny nervously stated, staring at Adrian with wide eyes. "He's freaking out…"

"Go figure!" Xander replied in frustration as he tried to crack the code in front of him.

"Heart break?" Shawn suggested.

"Heart crack?" Xander shook his head in confusion. "He's on crack?"

"That sounds about right," Johnny said, staring at the man about to melt down before them. "I think we need that doctor now."

"Heart hurt…" Shawn continued, at a loss. "Heart pain… heart cut… heart… attack?" He looked over at Adrian as he trembled in place, his mind shutting down as his heart raced faster. "Heart attack!" Shawn announced. "He's gonna give himself a heart attack!"

Xander, Johnny and Shawn snapped over to his side and faced him away from the window, afraid the skyscrapers and the fear of heights would add to his peril. "Calm down!" they all began to shout. Adrian was unresponsive to the outpour of orders. "Calm down! Breathe! Close your eyes!"

"It's coming!" Adrian shouted back. "It's coming! It's coming now! We're dead!"

"This isn't helping!" Johnny yelled over their voices. "Everyone stay calm!"

"Stay calm, Adrian!" Xander screamed.

"Stop shouting!" Johnny yelled.

Shawn pulled back his fist and slammed it against Adrian's jaw as he fell back into a sitting position on the floor with his back against the safety glass of the window, knocked unconscious. They stared at Adrian's limp body as their own hearts began to slow back to normal speed. Shawn grimaced with pain as she shook his aching fist out.

"Well _that_ calmed him," Xander noted and cracked a smile. Shawn nodded proudly as he glanced over at Xander and John and then they turned back to the glass… which began to crack under Adrian's weight. With a smash, the glass behind Adrian gave way as he fell backwards through the window. The three others leapt for the window and grabbed Adrian's arm and caught him, leaving him hanging out of the window as the pieces of glass rained down from the twenty-ninth story. 

Shawn panicked, "Bad idea! Bad idea!"

"You did _not_ think that through!" Xander snapped.

"Pull him back!" Johnny ordered. "Pull!"

The tweed sleeve of Adrian's jacket began to tear at the seams, dropping Adrian down another inch. Dangling out of the window, Adrian slowly began to come back to consciousness, opening his eyes and staring down in horror at the street below. He let out a horrified shriek, then gazed up at the three others who were desperately trying to get a better hold on him. 

"Close your eyes!" Shawn yelled. "We won't let you fall!"

"Trust us!" Xander called. "Close your eyes!"

In terror, Adrian managed the courage to close his eyes and reach up with his other hand, grabbing Johnny's wrist. The three of them pulled Adrian up and back through the window, tugging him to safety. They backed all the way across the room to the other wall before they stopped and fell back against it, sinking to the floor.

Staring at the gaping hole, they sat in silence for what felt like forever as their hearts slowed to a normal pace and they calmed themselves down. Adrian swallowed hard and let out a sigh of relief.

"Broken window," Shawn replied, embarrassed by his inability to solve the puzzle. "Broken window was the clue." The three others turned and gave him a look as he glanced away sheepishly.


	5. This is the End

**LEGAL A/N:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ and all characters belong to Joss Whedon, 20TH Century Fox Television, UPN, The WB and CW. _The Dead Zone_ and all characters belong to Shawn & Michael Piller, Stephen King, Lion's Gate Television and USA Network. _Monk_ and all characters belong to Andy Breckman, Mandeville Films, Touchstone Television, NBC Universal Television and USA Network. _Psych_ and all characters belong to Steve Franks, Tagline Pictures, NBC Universal Television Studios, GEP Productions and USA Network. _The 4400_ and all characters belong to Scott Peters & René Echevarria , Renegade 83, American Zoetrope, Paramount Network Television Productions, Viacom Productions Inc. and USA Network. _Final Destination_ and all characters belong to James Wong, Jeffrey Reddick & Glen Morgan, Hard Eight Pictures, Zide-Perry Productions and New Line Cinema. No profit is being made off of this and no copyright infringement is intended or implied. All ownership not mentioned here is acknowledged and respected.

_**Like the story so far? See the Promotional Poster Art here -- (www. destined dreamer .com / literature.html) ((Remove the spaces in address))**_

**5: This is the End**

The sun began a slow descent over Los Angeles, sinking behind the hills as Xander, Shawn, Adrian and Johnny wondered aimlessly through the street crowds on the sidewalk of a busy corner. They were now about a mile away from the shore of the Port of Los Angeles and had been walking for miles, afraid to get in a car again.

Xander gazed around cautiously, but not as much as he would've expected. Overcome with exhaustion, he stopped at an outdoor café called the Coffee Beanery and plopped down in one of the metal chairs, resting his head on his hand. The other three men joined him and gazed around nervously at the crowd surrounding them, unaware of the presence of the marked men.

"Are you okay, man?" Johnny said, gazing over at Xander with concern.

"Okay?" he repeated. "Sure. Except for the fact that I'm next on Death's list." Shawn, Adrian and Johnny gave each other looks.

"Well, _we_ beat it," Shawn said optimistically. "It skipped us… It'll skip you, too."

"But what happens after that?" Xander asked, frustrated. "Does it end? Or does it come back around for us again?" He sat back in his chair and wiped the sweat off of his forehead, the outdoor heat of the café baking him mercilessly. "This isn't over," he said, shaking his head bitterly.

The other men sat back with drained expressions as they descended into contemplation. "Since my car accident," Johnny said thoughtfully, "I always figured waking up from the coma was my second chance at life. Everything else was just overtime." With a sigh, he decided, "If this is the end… I can accept that."

"At least you completed _something_," Shawn declared. He mused over his experiences, and commented idly, "My dad always told me that I had done nothing with my life. And in the past eight hours… I see now that he was absolutely right." He gazed around the table with an expressionless look. "But you know what – that was _my_ choice. Maybe I shoulda done more. Shoulda got married. Shoulda grown up. But that's… that's the way it is."

Adrian stared out into the blankness in front of him as a small smile just barely formed his face. "I was married once," he whispered. "Her name was Trudy. She was…" The words faded away as warmth washed across his face. "If this means… I can be with her, then…"

He fell into thoughtful silence again as John replied, "You're not afraid?"

A wider smile stretched his face as he nodded his head. "Yeah…" he breathed, comforted. "I'm not afraid."

The three of them looked over at Xander again who watched the dozens of people on the sidewalk who walked passed him and the dozen more in the café surrounding him, the world still spinning exactly the way it should be. "I lost somebody, too," he answered with a sad tone. "I lost her to the most dangerous job in the world." He shook his head slowly, in awe of the events that transpired. "And to think that now – after all I've seen – I'm afraid of staplers and cotton balls. I'm afraid of _everything_." He glanced up at the sky and let his mono-sight sink to the people around him again. "I don't think I can live my life and be afraid all the time."

They looked away from him with a pitied expression. Adrian wiped the sweat off his brow with his handkerchief and placed it on the table beneath his hands.

Johnny stared at Xander with a half-frown. "So do you still believe it's a dream?" he asked him forwardly.

Xander looked up at Johnny, caught off guard. His mind at a loss, he looked around at the others as he tried to force himself into saying the word 'yes,' but it wasn't coming.

"Guys," Adrian whispered softly. He was staring down at his handkerchief as a red spot of wine bled through the cloth and grew. They watched as the crimson spot spread across the white linen as they stared at each other ominously.

A gust of wind blew across Xander's hot skin and he knew.

All four of them lifted their eyes and began to glance nervously around the café. The customers around them continued to eat and carry on their conversations, the pedestrians on the sidewalk chatted with each other or on cell phones, the traffic on the street moved by quickly. Xander's attention fell on a television set sitting on a nearby bar next to the register.

The male anchorman sat behind a desk and read the news to Xander and the other three. "Our top story tonight, the Center for Disease Control has ordered the Los Angeles City Morgue to be shut down when several of its staff fell ill and died a few hours ago at local hospitals, succumbing to a deadly virus hosted by a deceased carrier. The body was brought to the morgue shortly before noon today for autopsy, having supposedly died of unknown causes. Staff and officials were not aware of the contagiousness of the virus or that the man was even infected…"

The sound drowned out into the crowd around them. Xander felt a quivering inside of his stomach as the sweat dripped off of his face. He remembered accurately the body which Adrian had correctly identified as being of a sick man. His blood was boiling, his body temperature soaring as he glanced back at the other three. Johnny, Adrian and Shawn were now experiencing the same symptoms as Xander as the each clutched their insides and struggled to stay upright in their chairs.

Xander was hit with a wave of dizziness as the world around him began to spin. The voices of the customers rose to a blaring level as the lights of the setting sun and the outdoor fixtures sparked and burned his retina. He felt himself falling through the air, the taste of bile crawling into his mouth, and he collided with the pavement, staring up at the fiery orange sky. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest as it suddenly began to slow down dramatically.

The innocent chatter around him erupted into screams as strangers stared at him, gazing down at him with horror.

_It's a dream!_ he screamed to himself in terror, the world around him darkening. _It's all a dream! It's not real… It's only a dream… I don't...I don't believe..._

He could hear nothing else as he submerged into the darkness of unconsciousness.

* * *

He felt the ground beneath him lightly tremble. It sounded as if he were in a wind tunnel as mumbling voices could be heard all around him. Dim light poured into his eyes as he stared up at the night sky above. Xander noticed a crowd of people standing over him, staring down at him in shock. Every once in a while, a bright white flash of a camera went off nearby.

_I'm not dead_, he realized. A blurry figure leaned directly over him, its face close to his. The picture cleared as he gazed up at the concerned face of a young man in his early twenties with light brown hair wearing an expensive dark suit and light blue collared shirt. Xander blinked as he stared up at the young man, a familiarity surrounding him.

"You're gonna be okay," the familiar stranger declared with a calm voice and a half-smile. Xander's eyes drifted from the stranger to the concerned faces of Johnny, Shawn and Adrian, who also stood over him, and slowly they began to smile in relaxation. They were alive and well.

"Can you see all right?" Johnny asked. Suddenly, Xander realized what the strangeness in his sight was. He had _two_ eyes again. He sat straight up in shock as he reached for his face and saw the black eye patch lying on the ground. A woman reached down and handed him her compact mirror and he gazed at his two hazel eyes in shock. Xander looked around at the whole world with bewilderment and his eyes drifted over to a young TV news reporter standing in front of a camera with a microphone in his hand.

"This is Brian Cummings with KTTV 11 News reporting live from San Pedro Bay," the reporter announced to the television camera. "'Miracle healer' and former head of the 4400 Center Shawn Farrell rescued four men tonight at a local café and subsequently saved Los Angeles from an outbreak of the deadly Cordilla virus, released earlier this morning. According to officials, these four men who had been seen leaving the Los Angeles City Morgue shortly after noon today, were the only surviving carriers of the terrorist virus which was released on the deck of the U.S.S. Carl Vinson this morning, docked in the bay for military test flights…"

Xander glanced back at the _other_ young man whom Dawn had been crushing over as Shawn Farrell stood up and began a retreat through the crowd. "Hey, that's the guy from _The 4400_!" Xander exclaimed, pointing at him.

"Well, yeah, he's one of the 4400," Johnny shrugged carelessly. "Everybody knows that."

Xander jumped to his feet and watched Shawn Farrell leave through the crowd before the mob of reporters could reach him. "Hey, wait!" he called out. Shawn paused and turned back to face Xander before stepping off of the sidewalk. An instant later, a city transit bus zoomed passed him as the healer jumped back in horror. The crowd gasped as they realized that a second later, he would've been flattened by the speeding bus.

Xander's eyes went wide as Shawn Farrell backed away towards him, he and the crowd staring with jaws agape. "Whoa," Farrell said, glancing over at Xander. "Close call, huh?"

Xander glanced back over at Johnny, Shawn and Adrian who had equally stunned expressions and wide eyes which were filled with horror. "It's really _not_ over," Shawn Spencer breathed. Shawn Farrell looked down at them, confused by their sudden fear.

The crowd jolted as the sound of an explosion was heard from high above. The five doomed men glanced up as they saw a white parachute open in the distance against the black backdrop of the sky. With another explosion, an unmanned F-18 fighter jet burst into flames as it began an uncontrolled dive towards the street corner.

Xander's eyes opened wide as he saw the burning bird of hell plunging down towards them. The crowd erupted with a collective scream as his heart stopped in terror, realizing that there was no escape this time.

* * *

"Xander!" he could hear Buffy harshly snap.

His eye popped open as he found himself sitting on the couch in the Los Angeles hotel room. Dripping with sweat, Xander looked around the darkened room, his sight darting from corner to corner. He found the television set as the closing credits for Psych whizzed by. His heart was pounding in his chest as he looked over to see Buffy, Dawn and Willow glaring at him with unsatisfied expressions.

"I can't _believe_ you were asleep the whole time!" Dawn complained. "You totally missed out!"

"Where's…" Xander whispered, his heart still throbbing. "What…?"

Xander looked over at her, and then back at the television set as something boring enough to sleep through – an episode of _Nash Bridges_ – began to air.

"I'm too awake to sleep," Buffy declared as she glanced at Willow and Dawn. "I think I can stand to sit through the movie if you still wanna—" They looked over at Xander's stunned, horrified and confused face with puzzlement. "Xander?" Buffy asked. "What's wrong with _you_?"

"Whoa, Xander," Willow laughed, staring at him strangely. "Don't give yourself a heart attack."

Xander turned to her, white-faced, and then he glanced back at the TV. A commercial was now on television with the huge words 'OVER STRESSED?' crowding the screen. The computer-simulated X-ray picture of a beating heart slowing to a stop appeared on the television.

He could hear the Mortician's rolling, deep voice in his head like the distant rumbling of thunder: "_Have you ever had a dream that felt so real that your heart couldn't save itself from the fear? It couldn't distinguish the line between hallucination and reality?_"

The words 'THESE SYMPTOMS COULD LEAD TO DEATH' appeared on the TV. Then the commercial suddenly switched off as lightning flashed in the sky. The signal was lost and the screen flooded with static. The thought suddenly filled his mind – Shawn's cousin's neighbor who killed himself by thinking that he was going to die.

_Scared to death_, he thought to himself.

Xander had almost believed. He almost believed he was going to die. Was that real enough for Death? Was everything that he just experienced only a bad dream… or was it Death's plan for him? If so, did he just cheat it?

"Crap," Buffy rolled her eyes as she stared at the static-filled screen. She let out a long, disappointed sigh. "That's the end of that."

* * *

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